A study on idiomatic expressions containing the word water in english and nước in vietnamese

UNIVERSITY OF DANANG NGUYỄN VĂN KHIẾU A STUDY ON IDIOMATIC EXPRESSIONS CONTAINING THE WORD “WATER” IN ENGLISH AND “NƯỚC” IN VIETNAMESE Field : The English Language Code : 60.22.15 MA

UNIVERSITY OF DANANG

NGUYỄN VĂN KHIẾU

A STUDY ON IDIOMATIC EXPRESSIONS CONTAINING THE WORD “WATER” IN ENGLISH AND “NƯỚC” IN VIETNAMESE

Field : The English Language Code : 60.22.15

MASTER THESIS IN SOCIAL SCIENCES

AND HUMANITIES (A SUMMARY)

Danang, 2013

The study has been completed at College of Foreign Languages,

University of Danang

Supervisor: TRẦN QUANG HẢI, Ph.D

Examiner 1 : Dr Nguyễn Thị Quỳnh Hoa

Examiner 2 : Dr Trương Bạch Lê

The thesis was orally defended at the Examining Committee Time : June 9th , 2013

Venue : University of Danang

The Origin of the thesis is accessible for the purpose of reference at:

- The College of Foreign Languages Library, University of Danang

- Information Resourse Centre, University of Danang

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 RATIONALE

Each nation has its own language People naturally speak the language spoken by their forefathers However, English has had worldwide recognition for ages and becomes the most popular language Especially, in open-door period and the trend towards internationalization, English has become an essential tool in international communication and integration Therefore, the need for learning English is increasing not only in quantity but also in quality Apart from learning practical English for daily communication, for future jobs, for professional advancement, or for knowledge about England - its people, customs and culture – learners study the theory

of its language to get a thorough insight into the language Thanks to this language, we can belong to the world as well as to our own country, and especially using idioms is very important in everyday communication for the following reasons

Firstly, idiomatic expressions play an important part in a language both in written and spoken forms The most effective and interesting way in communication is using idiomatic expressions because they contain not only the literal meanings but the figurative and expensive meaning as well They are an integral part of a language and they make the language more beautiful and dynamic

In English the demand for using idiomatic expressions is becoming higher because it is spoken all over the world

Secondly, idiomatic expressions cause us many difficulties

in communication Though idioms help speakers and writer communicate more effectively and make the language more

interesting, they are not easy at all for everyone to use and master idioms appropriately Listeners and readers also find it really hard to understand idioms because their meanings cannot often be deduced from the individual components Idioms are used both in written and spoken language to emphasize meanings and make our observation, judgment and explanations more lively and interesting, so they have aesthetic function In other words, they are really useful tools for communicating a great deal of meaning in just a few words For example, to express a difficult situation that is hard to deal with the

English people often say “to be in deep water” or to be critical of a

plan that others thought was exciting or great they would like to say

“to pour cold water on something” If we want to indicate that

someone feels awkward or uncomfortable because he is in a situation

which he has not experienced before, we use the idioms “To be like

a fish out of water” If we want to talk about floating life, the Vietnamese say “bọt nước cánh bèo” We are attracted by the

questions how and why idioms differ from each other between English and Vietnamese in case of idioms containing the word

“water”

For these reasons above, I have decided to do research into

the topic entitled “A study on idiomatic expressions containing the word ”water” in English and “nước” in Vietnamese” with a

strong I desire to help learners to achieve proper comprehension and usage of English idioms containing the word “water” in English and“nước” inVietnamese

1.2 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

1.3 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

1.3.2 Objectives

- Identify and describe the syntactic features of English idiomatic expressions containing the word “water” and “nước” in Vietnamese

- Identify and describe the semantic features of English idiomatic expressions containing the word “water” and“nước” in Vietnamese

- To offer some implications for teaching and learning English idiomatic expressions containing the word “water” and

“nước” in Vietnamese

1.4 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

We wish to confine ourselves to studying idiomatic expressions containing the word ”water” and “nước” in Vietnamese

in terms of syntactic and semantic features The similarities and dissimilarities in syntactic and semantic features withdrawn from the study could not be explained on the basis of the cultural features of the languages in comparison

3 What are some suggestions for teaching and learning English idiomatic expressions containing the word “water” and

“nước” in Vietnamese?

1.6 ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY

The research includes five chapters as follows:

Chapter 1: “Introduction

Chapter 2: “Literature Review and Theoretical Background” Chapter 3: “Research Design and Methodology”

Chapter 4: “Findings and Discussion”

Chapter 5: “Conclusion and Recommendation”

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

2.1 AN OVERVIEW TO THE PREVIOUS STUDIES RELATED TO THE RESEARCH

Up to now, there have been many researchers who pay attention

to idioms Mc Marie with “English Idiom and How to Use them” (published in 1909), is considered among the first authors to study on the field of English Idioms Other authors include Smith with “Idioms” (1922), Collins with “A book of English Idioms with Explanation” (published in 1958), Broke with “Idioms for Everyday Use” (published in 1994), Cowries, Martin and Cairo with “Oxford Dictionary of Current idiomatic English” (published in 1994), Quick, Douglas Bibber, Rod Bonito and many other authors with “Longman Idiom Dictionary” ” (published in 1998), Teachers and Researchers from Cambridge University with “Cambridge International Dictionary

of Idioms” (published in 1999) Idioms also attract the attention of many Vietnamese researchers Nguyễn Lực, Lương Văn Đang, are two authors who made a significant contribution in the field of Vietnamese idioms They wrote “Thành Ngữ Tiếng Việt” which is a collection of Vietnamese idioms arranged in alphabetical order with clear explanations and examples extracted from Vietnamese novels, newspapers and magazines

2.2 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

2.2.1 Definition of Idioms

As for F.R.Palmer [27], “an idiom is an expression whose meanings cannot be inferred from the meaning of its parts”

2.2.2 Idiomatic expressions containing the word “Water”

“Water” is a noun as in “in hot water”

+ The meaning of “water”

“Water” is used to denote a situation that somebody deals with in life

In addition, “water” is used to indicate the quantity or frequency of doing something

Or “water” is used to express the quatity of doing something,

b Definition of idiomatic expressions containing the word

“Water”

EIW are a special kind of idioms in which the word “water”

is a key word In addition, EIW are one specific group of idioms that demonstrate the way people use EIW in set expressions and how they associate EIW with other things in the world

2.2.3 Main features of idioms

a Characteristics of English Idioms

+ Structural Features

An idiom is a fixed group of words Each word is regarded

as a component of an idiom An idiom can consist of at least two components Between them, it is impossible to add any other word

+ Semantic features

According to Grains and Redman [22], “semantic opacity”

or “semantic ambiguity” can be considered as one of the characteristic features of idioms

2.2.4 Idioms and Other Language Units

a Idioms and phrases

b Idioms and Collocations

c Idioms and Proverbs

2.2.5 Concepts of Semantic Fields

The term “Semantic Field” or “Semantic Domain” is used alternatively for the term “lexical field” or “lexical set”

Crystal [14, p.104] defines “a semantic and lexical field” as

“a named area of meaning in which lexemes interrelate and define each other in specific ways”, such as the field of “fruit” comprises the lexemes: apple, orange, banana, pear, peach…

2.3 SUMMARY

CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY

3.1 RESEARCH DESIGN

Syntactic, semantic similarities and differences of EIW and their Vietnamese equivalents will be discovered based on the description, contrast, induction, deduction The qualitative research design is used and supported by an empirical study of data collected

3.2 RESEARCH METHODS

In this study, the descriptive, contrastive, deductive, inductive and equivalent translational methods are used for finding out the syntactic characteristics of EIW and “nước” inVietnamese

3.3 PROCEDURES

3.4 SAMPLING

I choose the samples based on the following criteria:

- I collect the idioms in English

- I collect EIW and “nước” in Vietnamese from dictionaries and websites on the internet

- I choose English idiomatic expressions which contain the word “water” and “nước” in Vietnamese

3.5 DATA ANALYSIS

3.6 INSTRUMENTS FOR ANALYSIS

3.7 RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY

3.7.1 Reliability

3.7.2 Validity

CHAPTER 4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 4.1 SYNTACTIC FEATURES OF EIW AND “NƯỚC” IN VIETNAMESE

4.1.1 Phrase structures

a Verb Phrases

+ English:

[1] Verb + Noun/NP/Adv.P (muddy the waters)

[2] Verb + Noun/NP +Adv (cut someone's water off)

[3] Verb + Someone/Something + Adv

(blow something/somebody out of the water)

[4] Verb + Prepositional Phrase (go through fire and water) [5] To be +Prepositional Phrase (to be in low water)

+ Vietnamese

[1] V + Noun/ NP+ V + Noun/NP (Ăn cỗ đi trước lội nước

đi sau, bán nước buôn dân)

[2] Verb + Như + Noun/NP (ăn ở như bát nước đầy)

[3] Verb + Như + Noun + Verb (dâng lên như nước vỡ bờ) [4] Verb/VP + Noun/NP (Cười ra nước mắt, dội nước lạnh)

[5] Verb + Như + Verb + Noun/NP (mưa như trút nước)

Table 4.1 Verb phrase structures of English idiomatic expressions

containing the word “water” and “Nước” in Vietnamese

[1] Verb + Noun/NP/Adv.P [1] Verb + Noun/ NP+

Verb + Noun/ NP [2] Verb + Noun / Noun

Phrase +Adverb

[2] Verb + Như + Noun/Noun Phrase [3] Verb + Someone /

Something +Adverb

[3] Verb + Như + Noun + Verb [4] Verb + Prepositional

[5] Verb + Như + Verb + Noun/Noun Phrase

b Noun Phrases

+ English

[6] Adj + Noun (murky waters, uncharted waters)

[7] Adj + Noun + Prepositional Phrase (big drink of water)

[8] Adj + Noun and Adj + Noun (deep water and hot fire) [9] (Art) Noun/NP + Prep + Noun/NP (water under the

bridge, water over the dam)

[10] Noun/NP + and + Noun/NP (bread and water)

[11] Noun + Prepositional Phrase (water under the bridge)

[12] Noun/Gerund + Noun (water table, water proof)

+ Vietnamese:

[6] Như + Noun + Verb + Noun/NP(như cá gặp nước)

[7] Như + Noun + Với + Noun(như cá với nước)

[8] Như + Noun/NP (như nước thủy triều)

[9] Noun Phrase + Noun Phrase (cơm giời nước sông) [10] Noun + Adj + Noun + Adj (ao tù nước đọng)

Table 4.2 Noun phrase structures of English idiomatic expressions containing the Word “Water” and “Nước” in Vietnamese

[6] Adjective + Noun [6] Như + Noun + Verb +

Noun/Noun Phrase [7] Adjective + Noun +

c Adjective Phrases

+ English:

[13] Adj + Prepositional Phrase (dead in the water)

[14] Adj + as + Noun/Noun Phrase

+ Vietnamese:

[11] Adj + Noun + Adj + Noun (đục nước béo cò)

[12] Adj + Noun + Verb + Noun (đục nước thả câu)

[13] Adj/Adj.P+ như + Noun/NP (lạnh như nước đá)

[14] Adj + Noun (sạch nước cản) [15] Adjective + như + Noun + verb (đông như nước chảy)

Table 4.3 Adjective phrase structures of English Idiomatic expressions

containing the Word “Water” and “Nước” in Vietnamese

[13] Adj + Prepositional Phrase

[11] Adjective + Noun + Adjective + Noun [14] Adj + as +

Noun/Noun Phrase

[12] Adj + Noun + Verb + Noun

[15] Prep + Adj + Noun (in deep water)

[16] Prep + Noun Phrase (of the first water)

[17] Prep + Noun and Noun (through hell and high water)

[18] Prep + Noun + Prepositional Phrase (like a fish out of

water)

+ Vietnamese

The structures of prepositional phrases in Vietnamese do not

contain in idiomatic expressions in Vietnamese, just in English.

Table 4.4 Prepositional phrase structures of English Idiomatic

expressions containing the Word “Water” and “Nước” in

Vietnamese

ENGLISH VIETNAMESE [15] Preposition +

Adjective + Noun

X [16] Preposition + Noun Phrase X [17] Preposition + Noun

(you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink) [21] S + A + V + O, Conj + S + V + A (you never miss the

water till the well runs dry)

[22] S + Aux + V + A +Relative Pronoun + V + C (mill cannot grind with water that is past)

+ Vietnamese

[18] S + V, S + V (nước chảy đá mòn)

Table 4.5 Sentence Structures of English Idiomatic expressions

containing the Word “Water” and “Nước” in Vietnamese

English Vietnamese Patterns Number % Number %

4.1.3 The Structure of English idiomatic expressions containing the word “water” and Vietnamese ones containing the word “nước”

Phrase +Adverb

[2] Verb + Như + Noun/Noun Phrase [3] Verb + Someone /

Something +Adverb

[3] Verb + Như + Noun + Verb

[4] Verb + Prepositional Phrase

[4] Verb/ Verb Phrase + Noun/Noun Phrase

VP

[5] To Be +Prepositional Phrase

[5] Verb + Như + Verb + Noun/Noun Phrase [6] Adjective + Noun [6] Như + Noun + Verb

+ Noun/Noun Phrase [7] Adjective + Noun +

[9] (Article) Noun/NP +

Prep + Noun/NP

[9] Noun Phrase + Noun Phrase [10] Noun/NP + and +

Noun/NP

[10] Noun + Adj +Noun + Adj [11] Noun +

Noun/Noun Phrase

[12] Adj + Noun + Verb + Noun

X [13] Adjective/Adj.P+

Như + Noun/NP

X [14] Adj + Noun ADJ P

X [15] Adjective + như +

Noun + verb [15] Preposition +

[18] Preposition + Noun

+Prepositional Phrase

X

[17] S + Verb + A

[21] S + A + Verb + O, Conj + S + Verb + A

[18] S + Verb, S + Verb

(%) Number

Percent (%)

4.1.4 Similarities and Differences in Syntactic Features

of English Idiomatic expressions containing the Word “Water” and “Nước” in Vietnamese

Table 4.8 Frequency of Semantic Fields of EIW and VIN

EIW and VIN English Vietnamese Word group Number % Number %

4.2.3 Similarities and Differences in Semantic Features

of English Idiomatic expressions containing the Word “Water” and “Nước” in Vietnamese

a Similarities

b Differences